


Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

by debwalsh



Series: Bingo-Bingo [23]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Captain America Impersonator, Captain America Steve Rogers/Modern Bucky Barnes, Gift Fic, M/M, Mistaken Identity, Modern Bucky Barnes, Shrunkyclunks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-19 14:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20326837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/debwalsh/pseuds/debwalsh
Summary: Someone I know on Twitter has just gone through some big life changes.  They’ve gotten to their new destination, only to find that a new neighbor is an Elvis impersonator, complete with all kinds of memorabilia.  I quipped a fic idea where Steve moves into an apartment with a Captain America impersonator, and Bucky is the building super, and gets them mixed up.  The Twitter person told me to write it.  So I did.This one’s for you, ClaraXBarton!Fills the Mistaken Identity square of my Star Spangled Bingo 2019 card!





	Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ClaraxBarton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaraxBarton/gifts).

> If you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Steve looked around his new apartment and smiled. It wasn’t as palatial as the floor he had at Avengers Tower, and it wasn’t as high tech as his place at the Compound.It also wasn’t as small as his rented rooms in Red Hook before the war, and it wasn’t as homey as his Ma’s place before she got sick.

Not yet, at least.He’d been eyeing the work of some local artisans at the farmers’ market, and he had the card for Mrs. O’Keefe’s grandson who did fabric murals.He had some prints he’d been collecting, and quite a few Steven G. Rogers originals he’d been wanting to frame.He knew it wouldn’t take long to make this place a home unlike anything he’d had before.

His. 

&&&

The first time he saw the guy, he thought he was having an out of body experience.That, or Wanda was visiting and fucking with his head.Again.She was still learning the difference between funny and fucking boundaries.Getting experimented on by Hydra’ll do that to a person, so he gave her wide latitude on the issue ... so far.

But no, Wanda and her brother were in Minnesota, visiting a distant relative who’d offered to sponsor them for US citizenship.It was nice, that they still had some family, after everything that had happened to them.Truth was, he envied them that.

But that didn’t explain his doppelgänger.Steve had been the only child of a pair of only children, and he’d never fathered a child - despite the speculation on the Internet, he and Peggy had been just very good friends, thank you very much, and he preferred his sexual partners on the ... well, more male side.As in men.As in blue-eyed, dark-haired, scruffy looking men who liked ... oh.Yeah, better not to think about that when he was out in public.Wouldn’t do for Captain Fucking America to sport a stiffy in broad daylight.

The second time he saw him, the fella actually did a double take himself, stopping to stare open-mouthed at Steve before his eyes widened in what looked like terror, and he bolted into the apartment next to Steve so fast, he coulda given Pietro a run for his money.

Steve checked behind him, and there was no monstrous behemoth or Sunday school teacher with a ruler, so Steve kinda felt like the guy was just, you know.Rude.

Which made Steve sad. He’d moved out of the Avengers housing because he wanted to connect with people who weren’t enhanced, who weren’t paid to spend time with him.Okay, yeah, Phil Coulson would gladly pay to be able to spend time with Steve, but it didn’t change the fact that on some missions, it was his actual job to spend time with Steve.

Steve just wanted some authenticity in his life.Something real he could call Steve Rogers’s rather than Captain America’s.

Was that too much to ask?

&&&

Apparently, it was.

He hadn’t seen the guy in a week, but he sure as hell knew he was there.

Star Spangled Man with a Plan played on an endless loop while he had to listen to MiniMe prancing around his apartment and apparently trying to take out the wall between with his bargain basement shield.

It was annoying, and not for the first time, Steve was kinda missing being mostly deaf.He was able to ignore a helluva lot of bullshit when he couldn’t hear it.

His neighbor, however, seemed intent on making Steve hear every note, every crash, every idiot move the guy made.

And then he must’ve gone for the championship swing, and that fake shield of his broke through the wall and managed to hit some wires, blowing the whole building. 

Steve heard a panicked, “Fuck!” followed by a dull thud, a slamming door, and the sound of feet racing down the stairs.

Great. His neighbor was a doppelgänger, and idiot, and a coward.

&&&

He hadn’t met the building superintendent yet because the guy hadn’t been around when Steve moved in, and he hadn’t had any need to call for help since he’d settled in.Steve was used to doing his own maintenance from before the serum, and YouTube brought him up to date on techniques and processes.So he was pretty self-sufficient.

But fixing a building’s electrical system thanks to an idiot with a shield - Sam would say another idiot with a shield - that was outside of his wheelhouse, so to speak.So he dialed the number just in case no one else did, and got a recording telling him the Super knew the lights were out and he was working on a repair.Okay then.Steve was perfectly happy relaxing with his Stark phone and Stark tablet, both of which ran off their own tiny arc reactors that would remain charged for another year or two at least.If he had to, he knew how to connect them so they could be a power source for his appliances.Just in case the lights weren’t back on by the time the ice cream started to melt.

&&&

He didn’t realize he’d dozed off until he woke with a start to the sound of a fist pounding on his door, and a deep voice calling out, “Super!Checkin’ everybody’s okay now.Anybody there?”

Well, that was nice.He’d had a super back in the day who didn’t give a shit about anyone.He coulda died in his apartment, and no one woulda noticed until the neighbors complained about the smell.And even then, he wouldn’t’ve come around until the rent was due.

So Steve returned the neighborly gesture with one of his own - he dragged his half-asleep ass to the door and opened it wide, about to say hello when the guy on the other side - blue-eyed, dark haired, scruffy and oh so his type - practically growled at him, and swore, “Lyle, what the actual fuck?”

“Uh -“

“Look, you nimrod, I know you’ve been coasting through life because you have a passing resemblance to that god of a man, but you gotta stop messin’ around with the building wiring with that fucking tin plate of yours.And what the hell, breaking into your neighbor’s apartment so you miss out on the goddamned punishment you damned well deserve, you miserable turnip!And don’t think making yourself look pretty right now is gonna change my mind!We fucked once, but never again!”

While he was catching his breath, Steve, whose eyebrows had become one with his hairline, stuttered out, “Hi, I’m Steve Rogers.”At the dumbfounded expression on the guy’s face, he added, “Who the hell is Lyle?”When his eyes widened in horror, and his mouth opened and closed without sound, Steve smiled tentatively and asked, “Do you really think I’m pretty?”

&&&

“He’ll be fine.”

“You say that with such conviction, Buck,” Steve said and leaned over to buss Bucky on the cheek.Then he went back to unpacking the plates he’d bought from a local potter.He loved the glaze and the heft of the plates, and he really liked the idea of buying local.And he especially loved the fact that he and Bucky had picked them out together.

“Okay, yeah.He’s an idiot.But now that he’s not permitted to impersonate you anymore, I guarantee the number of childhood injuries in the neighborhood will go down.He was a terror with that thing.”

“No argument there.But he said he didn’t know how to do anything else.”

“Well, he didn’t know how to do that, either, so less harm, less foul.That entry level training program your friend Stark put him in - that’s more his style, anyway.At least he can’t cut someone’s head off from a call center.”

Thinking back to the last AI mishap Tony had gotten up to, Steve wasn’t so sure, but he doubted Lyle - his erstwhile doppelgänger - had the smarts to tinker with an AI with a security system designed by Tony Stark.Just the same, he’d suggested extra safeguards - you never knew when someone was so inept, they actually managed to ignore their way to bypassing security and starting a nuclear war.

But thinking about Lyle Pendergast when Bucky Barnes was standing there in his - their - kitchen, looking tall, cool, and delicious was ... well, it was a crime against nature.So Steve put down the handmade dinner plate and turned to wrap his arms around Bucky’s torso, bringing him close. 

“Well, he did one thing right.”

“If you go on about how we might not’a met if it weren’t for Lyle being a public menace, I’m gonna have to smack you one.We were meant to be, baby.We are inevitable.”

“Yeah? I dunno.Think I’m gonna need some evidence there, doll.”

“Yeah?” Bucky leaned in and kissed Steve gently, then pulled back enough to rest their foreheads together.“You’n’me, babe.We’re endgame.”

“Yeah?” Steve asked, scrunching down so he could capture Bucky’s lips again.He liked kissing Bucky Barnes.He liked living with him.He liked falling asleep with him, and waking in the morning to find their bodies tangled together like they’re trying to become one.

He loved Bucky Barnes.

“Yeah.Face it, babe.You’re stuck with me.I’m with you ‘til the end of the line.”

Steve smiled, and lifted his hand to caress Bucky’s face with his palm.Then he felt the devil bubbling up, and said loftily, “Maybe I should send Lyle a fruit basket.He is responsible for us meeting.And you did throw him over for me -“

“Oh, you fucking idiot.It was one time!In a moment of weakness.I regretted it before it was even over.It’s a good thing I love you, you punk!”

“Yeah?‘Cos I love you, too, jerk.Now, c’mon - lemme show you how much.”

“Now you’re talking!” Bucky exclaimed, smiling into their next kiss, and the next, and the ones that followed.

And Steve smiled too, safe in the knowledge he’d finally found his home.

END

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot more stories in the pipeline. I’ll be posting a bunch of new stories by the end of the month/beginning of September.
> 
> In the meantime, let me know what you think - I am really enjoying playing with Shrunkyclunks!


End file.
